If communists win, they will not hold elections again: Deuba

TEHRATHUM, Nov 27: Prime Minister and Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba has doubted elections would ever be held in Nepal if the people gave majority votes to communists in the upcoming elections.

Addressing an election campaign assembly organized by the Nepali Congress at Myanglung of Tehrathum district on Monday, he said this election was like a referendum in which the people have to choose between parliamentary democracy and one-party dictatorship.

He said democracy will lose if the Congress were to lose the election which according to him will pave the way for a single party authoritarianism in the country.

“People have the right to live, express and speak freely as well as the right to profess a different ideology and protest in a democracy. But in a communist dictatorship the people cannot even walk freely,” he said.

The Nepali Congress president argued that the Leftist Alliance was thinking of establishing a communist rule by abrogating the present constitution. “There is no other party except the Nepali Congress which believes sincerely in a multi-party democracy. Democracy loses if the Nepali Congress was defeated. So it is essential for the Nepali Congress to win this election,” he added.

He further said that the Nepali Congress empowered the people with sovereign rights considering them to be the masters while the communists tried to rule over the people by always keeping them under fear, urging the voters to vote for the Nepali Congress of the Democratic Alliance by realizing that the communists wanted to suppress the people.

Stating that it was the Nepali Congress which has been protecting the people’s rights and considering the people as the sovereign since 2007 BS, NC president Deuba alleged that the communists were trying to revive the autocracy espoused by the late king Mahendra. He said the communist rule has become obsolete across the world.

He urged the voters to vote for an energetic candidate from the indigenous nationalities community, Sita Gurung and make her victorious in the election for the development of the district.

Nepali Congress senior leader Ram Chandra Poudel claimed that the leftist alliance will bring bad omen in the country, saying the communists were always oriented towards the path of violence. He stated that the communists only know how to create problems but did not offer solutions. It is only the Nepali Congress that has resolved the problems and advanced development in the country, he added.

“King Mahendra had tried to hijack democracy and the communists too have tried to usurp parliamentary system. This system cannot be ever hijacked,” he declared and urged the voters to choose the parliamentary system as this system has made development possible in Europe, Japan, India, among other countries. He reiterated that the Nepali Congress wanted to make the country self-reliant.

Minister of State for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Sita Gurung said the Tehrathum district has lagged behind in development as the communists were elected from the district two and half decades. She said the district’s development was possible only under the Nepali Congress’ leadership.

She also claimed that the district could not develop due to the non-cooperation from the male leaders who were elected in the first-past-the-post elections. Gurung is contesting in the House of Representatives election from Tehrathum.

Other district level Nepali Congress leaders including Tulasi Subba, former lawmaker Ganesh Bimali and Bijaya Sambahamfe, a candidate for the State Assembly election from Tehrathum constituency (B), among other leaders also expressed their views on the occasion.

Nepali Congress district president and the party’s candidate for the State Assembly election from Tehrathum (A) constituency, Govinda Dhungana presided over the program. RSS